Jolene has been one of my best friends for over four years now; we met back in college and instantly bonded over being one of the few transfer students in our dorm building, (not to mention the other tidbits that brought us together like our love for Jesus, coffee, tea, traveling, binging on bbq chips, music, writing, reading, and talking on and on about our feelings all day loooong).
Since then we have hung out sporadically in Toronto, spent the weekend in Ottawa together, and she even agreed to be a bridesmaid for me at my wedding in Manitoba! Since I wasn't legally allowed to leave the country after moving to the USA (Visa policy), we've been maintaining a long distance relationship via skype.
One day at the beginning of summer she said something along the lines of "When can I visit you? It's time to buy flights!!". (EEEEeeee!!) I definitely had a few heart palpitations and flutters following this conversation. We decided on September 17th and felt like it just couldn't come soon enough!
Get ready to see a TON of photos!
D A Y O N E:
When that glorious day arrived, I picked her up at the airport in the afternoon and was like "OK we are absolutely not going back to my apartment right now, because that is so lame. We are gonna do something touristy!" (And as a Canadian living in the USA, I will take any excuse to be touristy).
So we spent our first evening together at the Baltimore Inner Harbor. It is probably my favourite place in Baltimore and everyone needs to go!
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| TOGETHER at LAST! <3 |
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| This has got to be the coolest Barnes & Noble to ever exist! |
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| Brick, brick, brick, nothin' but brick. |
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| The Hard Rock Cafe, one of my favourite restaurants. |
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| A boat! Because...harbours have boats... |
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| Another boat! Surprise! |
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| This is our signature pose. Together, we are practically a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie poster. |
D A Y T W O:
Because we believe in democracy, together we decided that our "day two" should consist of giving Jolene a tour of my Maryland hometown. (I of course only showed her the best of what this part of Maryland had to offer). Stop one: a hike at the Fair Hill Nature Center, which is also where Jarryd proposed to me. Awwww, good times.
Stop two, Sandy Cove.
And I believe that evening we had TACO NIGHT and watched "Dan in Real Life" with Jarryd which was awesome. Low key evenings with my favourite people are the best!!
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| Jolene, one with nature. |
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| Fun, on the rocks! (Like a drink!) |
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| Sitting on a bridge. Wondering what on earth to do about our crazy lives. |
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| I heart my photographer and her camera. (Jolene and Jolene's camera) |
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| Acting casual. |
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| Up close and personal with Jenny. Too close, maybe? |
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| A beautiful monarch. |
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| Yes! She is crazy and she climbs; she is a crazy good climber. |
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| It's truuuuuuue! <3 |
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| Anybody know what kind of tree this is to produce such a seed? They are big seeds and could cause serious harm if torpedoed at my head. |
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| HAD to show her this place! It is my second home, really. |
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| A marina overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. We saw many a duck here. |
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| Because we are super athletic people, we had to fit in a game of frisbee golf. (I actually WON too!!!) |
D A Y T H R E E:
NEW YOOOORK, NEW YOOOOOORK!
One of the best things about living where I live is that it's a mere three-hour hop skip and a jump to New York City. Just hop to your car, skip it over to the train station, and jump the train over to Penn Station, NYC. It's so easy, I could do it in my sleep.
The first thing we did when our feet touched the New York pavement was hit up the nearest Starbucks. And let's face it, this wasn't a difficult task because there's one on every corner. I may or may not have had three pumpkin spiced lattes that day...heh...
Our first stop in the big wide world of NYC, following our caffeine fix, was Greenwich Village.
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| One of the many historic churches in NYC. What a beauty! |
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| Because of my naivety, I only thought these chess tables existed in the movies. Turn out there really are old men waiting around asking you to play a game of chess with them! But I digress. |
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| Washington Square Park! I love it! This place will always remind of the movie: August Rush. |
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| Jolene doin' what she does! A woman of many talents. |
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| Me with the Washington Square Arch. <3 |
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| Piano in the park. This was lovely! |
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| This was #1 on Jolene's list: Caffe Reggio, where Bob Dylan played and "home of the original cappuccino". (And home of the world's smallest bathroom in my opinion. My knees literally could not fit while sitting down. I honestly had to sit sideways on the toilet. lololol!!!) |
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| Speaking of Cappuccino! This pretty lady makes for a good lunch date. |
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| This cafe was also a great place to sit and "people watch", something that Jolene and I thoroughly love to do, because people are a perfect ratio of one part weird:one part entertaining. |
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| A fountain! Which fountain, you ask? I simply cannot remember. |
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| My beautiful friend!!! |
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| I freaking love this photo. Jolene took this and all credit goes to her. It's like all cute and sultry with the pink walls and foliage, but the moment your eyes hit the motorcycle...BAM! Not so cutesy anymore! |
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| When finding a super cool wall, one must take photos in front of it. |
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| Part-time model. |
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| Hello there, Harry's! |
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| Working it the best I can! |
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| We are pose-twins. Posey twins. Pose Twinnage. Twinning! |
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| Classic NYC architecture. |
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| We then set out on our quest to find the Brooklyn Bridge...after walking all the way from Greenwich Village in search of the Brooklyn Bridge, we ended up walking past the bridge and down to the South Street Seaport. |
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| Walking past the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge was actually a blessing in disguise, because it brought us to THIS VIEW! My heart :) <3 |
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| "When I was in middle school I stumbled upon photos of the Brooklyn Bridge on DeviantArt.com (haha!) and I instantly fell in love with it. Oddly enough, it took me three visits to New York City to finally step on it for the first time, and I know, that without a doubt, this is my favourite bridge." |
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| Besties! |
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| This photo makes me smile! |
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| We eventually found our way to the Brooklyn Bridge, and it was SO crowded. Note to self, never go to NYC on a Saturday... |
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| Just look at that, clearly I'm in my happy place. |
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| This bridge is unlike anything. Cords upon cords! |
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| This is one last glance behind us as we walked all the way across the bridge from Manhattan into Brooklyn. Check out that city scape. Freedom Tower! |
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| We are all smiles here, but at the same time tired out of our minds! |
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| Wow-weee! |
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| The Steel Globe at Columbus Circle. |
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| I love Central Park, so much! And it's amazing how quiet it is too. |
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| We sat down for a little concert on the grass. Of course with Jolene's luck, this guy played nothing but Bob Dylan! Lol!! |
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| Sighhhhh. This is the Loeb Boathouse Central Park. It is my dream to eat dinner here. Somebody take me out on a dinner date please. :) |
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| The time when I died of pure exhaustion in Central Park. No big deal at all. |
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| Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. There goes my heart again. :) |
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| Who knew there were so many walking trails in Central Park? This was great because you almost forget you are inside the largest city in the US, it's that quiet! |
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| A goddess. |
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| How romantic is this?! |
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| The Bow Bridge. Its design is breathtaking! |
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| The light hits just perfectly. :) |
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral. Huge! |
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| Radio City Music Hall! I just really appreciate all of the yellow going on here! |
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| After a satisfying dinner at Applebees (we were starving, OK? We had no other choice!), we stumbled upon Times Square. Where we indulged in a little bit of shopping and Starbucks. |
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| We were being total goofs on the train ride home. When you're so tired and sunburnt, there's nothing left to do but be weird and goofy. It's what friends do. |
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| I salvaged all of my travel pins from my purse before throwing the purse in the trash. Good riddance. That thing was flaking leather EVERYWHERE. I probably left trails all over the city. |
D A Y F O U R & F I V E:
Our day-trip to New York City completely exhausted us, so we decided that a day of rest was definitely in order! After sleeping in to our body's delight and having an easy morning, we couldn't resist a tax-free shopping day in Delaware!
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| I told you we were twins! :) |
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| Jolene's new coffee camping mugs. I'm so glad she bought them! The decision was a true struggle. (And yes I just woke up here). |
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| It's not a normal day with Jolene without a little serenading. (Hipster alert!) |
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| We just had to take a little detour on the way to the airport to get some Rita's Italian Ice with Custard!! SO good and so perfect to comfort us during our fateful goodbye. |
1. I've hung out in that Barns & Nobel! fun! and I went inside that old ship.
ReplyDelete2. Applebees is the best.
3. Was that the purse I bought you for Christmas 5 years ago??? how rude.
1. You actually went inside the ship? Now that is something I have never done!
Delete2. Applebees is pretty good. Their wings are yummo! It just felt like a sin choosing Applebees over ALL the restaurants in NYC....we were just so hungry...
3. Hmm...I don't know what you're talking about...cough....